Peters



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1. W. S. WHITING.

W/ 55555, I I 1 v5 /Z /f (5%.W. A

N. PETERS. Flvolo-Lillwgmpher. Washinghm my C.

I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. WIS. WHITING.

AUTOMATIC RAILWAY GATE. 1 No. 392,769. Patented Nov. 13, 1888.. 1 1

(No Model.)

WM. 55555, L'

I a'rnr l l lfildt \VILLIAM S. 'WHITING, OF \VATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE HALF 'IO CHARLES F. TROTT, OF SAME PLACE.

AUTOMATKC RAILWAY-GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 392,769, dated November 13 1888.

Application filed July 30, 1888.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. Wurrrnc, a citizen of the United States, residing at Watel-bury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Railway- Gates; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to produce simple and durable mechanism adapted to be actuated by the passage of railwaytrains in either direction to release suitable operating mechanism which will act to either open or close railway-gates. It will of course be understood that mechanism of this class, unless perfectly automatic and reliable at all times, is worse than useless, as it becomes a source of great danger. In order to overcome the objections to devices of this class heretofore produced, I have reduced the number of parts, simplified the mechanism in every way, and have produced a construction that will be practically impossible to get out of repair.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan view of a short section of one track of a doubletrack railway, showing a crossing and that portion of my novel mechanism which operates in the plane of the track; Fig. 2, an elevation of a gate and of that portion of the mechanism which operates in the vertical plane, the gate being in the closed position; Fig. 3, a similar view showing the gate in the open position; Figs. 4 and 5, detail views, on an enlarged scale, illustrating the operation of dogs adapted to be engaged by the flanges of the wheels; Fig. 6, a plan view illustrating the application of my invention to a singletrack railway; and Fig. 7 is an elevation of a style of dog adapted to be operated by the pilot or any solid portion of the locomotive.

Similar numbers denote the same parts in all the figures.

1 denotes the rails, 2 the ties, and 3 the crossing.

4 is a suitable caboose or house which con- 50 tains the intermediate operating mechanism Serial No. 281,361. (No model.)

and preferably alarm mechanism, which commenccs to sound the moment the gate begins to close, and may or may not continue to sound until the gate is opened by the passage of a train.

5 is the gate, which is simply a lever suitably pivoted in the caboose and adapted to swing downward across the wagon-road. In practice I prefer to place the gate so high that a team can pass under it, and provide it with pendants 6, consisting of ropes, wires, or jointed rods, thesependants being depended upon to prevent the passage of a team from the outside, but at the same time to permit a team to pass through and escape in the event of being caught between the gates from any cause whatever. The gate is swung upward and downward by means of a link, 7, and lever 8, suitably pivoted within the caboose, said lever being provided at its lower end with a slot, 8, which is engaged by a pin, 9, upon operating-wheel 10, the shaft of which is connected with and rotated by the operating mechanism. The operating mechanism is neither illustrated nor described in detail, as it forms no portion of my present invention. In the drawings I have indicated (see dotted lines, Figs. 2 and 3) a weight, rope, drum, and gearing by which wheel 10 is operated. If preferred, a spring or an electric or water motor may be substituted.

Alarm mechanism is preferably used which may be of any ordinary or preferred form. I have simply illustrated a gong,denoted by 10, and a lever controlled by a spring, one end of said lever being provided with a hammer, the other end engaging a gear-wheel by which it is vibrated to sound the gong. It will be seen that the operating-wheel makes a complete revolution at each opening and closing of the gate, the gate being opened by the first halfrevolution and closed by the second half of the revolution, the operation, being repeated at each revolution of said wheel. It will of course be apparent that the same principle of operation may be applied to operate gates swinging in the horizontal instead of the vertical plane, if preferred. This being an obvious modification, has not been deemed to require illns trationin the drawings.

11 is a stop, preferably a strong spring socured in the caboose, which is bowed outward and bears against wheel 10 with sufficient frictional power to hold it against the power of the operating mechanism. At the lower end of the spring is a projection, 12, which is adapted to be engaged to force the step back to release the operating-wheel, as will pres ently be described.

18 13 13"13 denote dogs suitably pivoted at the sides of the track outside of the rails. The exact shape of these dogs is not of the essence of my invention. Each one, as illustrated in this form, embodies the principle of the bell-crank lever, and for convenience in the attachment of the connections I usually provide them with additional arms, as shown in the drawings. In the form illustrated in Fig. 6that is, for use upon a single-track railway these dogs are provided with upwardly-extending lugs or pins 14, which are adapted to be engaged by the pilot of the locomotive, or by any suitable solid projection on the locomotive or on a car. In adapting this device to a single-track railway I use two pairs of dogs, one pair being placed a suitable distance from the caboose in one direction and the other pair a suitable distance in the opposite direction, a dog being pivoted just outside of each rail in such aposition that when the lug upon one dog is in operative position the lug upon its companion is out of operative position, each pair of dogs being joined together by suitable connections, 15, so that one dog cannot be moved withoutmoving its companion.

In order to insure that there shall be no failure of operation under any circumstances whatever, I preferably provide additional connections, 16, which extend outward from each dog, then around pulleys 17, then across under both tracks and beyond the dog on the opposite side, and then inward, the ends being joined to the opposite dog, as is clearly shown in Fig. 6. It will of course be understood that these connections may be either chains, wire ropes, or a combination of rods with chains or ropes, as shown in the drawings, it being oicourse essential that certain portions of the connections be flexible and ordinarily preferable that other portions be rigid and unyielding.

The operation is as follows, it being of course understood that the pairs of dogs are placed at a distance apart greater than the length of any train. As the parts are illustrated in Fig. 6 a train coming from the right would strike the lug 14 upon the dog, which I have denoted specifically by 13. The effect would be to cause said dog to turn on its pivotal point until the lug thereon was carried out of engagement with the engaging portion of the pilot of thelocomotive or other engaging portion of the train. This movement, by means of the connections already described, would reverse the position of all four of the dogs.

It will be noticed that in Fig. 6 the dogs dc noted specifically by 13 and 13" are in operative position, and that dogs denoted by 13" and 13 are out of operative position. The en gagement of the train or a car with the lug upon dog 13 will carry that dog and also the one denoted by 13 out of operative position, and will at the same time throw the two dogs denoted, respectively, by 13" and 13 into operative position. It will be noticed that for convenience in the drawings, and in order to enlarge the proportions thereof, the relative positions of the parts are greatly distorted.

In practice the caboose is placed about midway between the two pairs of dogs, and the distance from each pair of dogs to the caboose will be sufficiently great to insure the complete closing of the gate and sounding of the alarm several seconds before the train reaches the crossing, no matter at what speed it may be moving. One dog of each pair is connected to the corresponding dog of the other pair by means of suitable connections, 18, chains,'rods, Wire ropes, or a combination thereof being used for that purpose. About midway between the two pairs of dogs, and in front of the caboose, is a slide, 19, which reciproeates in a suitable guide, 20. This slide is provided with a projection, 21, beveled on opposite sides to engage projection 12 on step 11. The position of the parts at the instant of the engagement of the pilot of the locomotive or other portion of the train with the lug 14 on dog 13 is clearly shown in Fig. 6. The instant this engagement takes place slide 19 is moved to ward the right, and by the engagement of projection 21 with the projection upon stop 11. the stop is forced backward for an instant, releasing the operating-wheel and permitting the operating mechanism to act to sound the alarm and to throw the gate to the closed position as in Fig. 2, in which position it will remain until lifted by another movement of the operating mechanism. This second movement of the operating mechanism takes place through the engagement of the train with the lug 11 upon dog 13", the effect of which is to throw the gate to the open position as in Fig. 3 and to return the dogs to the position shown in Fig. 6. Should asecond train follow in the same direction, the operations will be repeated as before. Suppose, now, with the parts in the position shown in Fig. (3, that a train were to approach from the left, the lug 14 upon dog 13 would be engaged by a suitable projection on some portion thereof and the operation re peated as before, said lug 14 and dog l3 being carried out of operative position and dogs 13" and 13 thrown into operative position. The engagement of the train with the lug 1a upon dog 13 as it moved away would throw the latter dog out of operative position again and open the gate, the position of the parts being again as shown in the drawings.

It will thus be seen that myiniprovcd mechanism is adapted to work equally well, no matter in which direction the trains may approach, the gates opening and closing automatically each time a train passes, whether there be a succession of trains in one direction or alternate trains in opposite directions.

Turning now to Figs. 1, 4, and 5 I have illustrated a form of my invention which I deem preferable for double-track railways. 22 denotes slides which move in suitable guides or ways, 23, under the track, and are provided at their inner ends with beveled enlargements 24. The dogs in this form are denoted by 25. They are provided with suitable heads, 26, the faces of which are beveled to correspond with the beveled faces of enlargements 24, and their shanks are pivoted to suitable brackets, 27. 28 denotes levers suitably pivoted midway their length, ordinarily to ties. These levers are provided with arms 29, which engage slides 22 either by being pivoted thereto or by engagement with pins 30, as shown in the drawings. As in the other form, the caboose is placed midway between the dogs, the distance between said dogs being suiliciently great to insure a complete closing of the gate and a sounding of the alarm several seconds before the train reaches the crossing and to insure the passage of trains beyond the first dog before the second dog is reached. The two levers 28 are connected together by means of connections 18, either flexible or rigid, similar to those which connect the pairs of dogs in the other form. In this form the connections are attached to the operative ends of the levers. Instead of being engaged by the pilot of the locomotive or some other suitable projection upon the train, the dogs in this form are engaged by one of the front wheels. In Figs. 4 and 5 I have shown the first dog in its normalthat is, its raisedposition, it being understood that Fig. 1 illustrates the right track of a double-track railway. The trains of course approach from the right, as seen in the drawings. The tread of the first wheel engages the dog and presses it down even with the surface of the track. This acts to draw slide 22 inward, shifting the position of the first lever 28, and by means of connections 22 and the opposite lever 28 shifting the position of the other dog, the opposite lever 28 being drawn outward, which raises the dog to the position shown in Figs. 4 and 5, so that the instantthis dog is engaged by the wheel of the locomotive as it moves away the dog is pressed down, forcing the slide inward again, and by means of the connections and opposite lever throwing the other slide outward and raising that dog into operative position, ready for the next train. The gate and the alarm operate precisely as in the other form. IVhen the first dog is pressed downward, projection 21 forces projection 12 on the stop outward, releasing the operating mechanism, which closes the gate and sounds the alarm. As soon as the second dog is pressed down by a wheel of the train the operation is repeated, with the exception that the gate is opened instead of being closed.

I have not deemed it necessary to illustrate both tracks of a double-track railway, as the special connections are not of the essence of my invention and would necessarily resemble those shown in Fig. 6.

It will of course be understood that my invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that they may be varied greatly without departing from the principle thereof.

I claim 1. The combination, with the dogs, a slide, 19, and suitable connections between the dogs and the slide, of a railway-gate, a pivoted lever having a slot, a link connecting the lever and the gate, an operating-wheel having a pin engaging the slot, and astop engaging the wheel to determine its movement and engaged by the slide to release the wheel each time the slide is reciprocated.

2. The combination, with a pivoted gate, a pivoted lever having a slot, 8, and a link connecting said gate and lever, of an operatingwheel having a pin engaging said slot, a stop adapted to determine the movement of said operating-wheel, and aslide having an enlargement engaging said stop, whereby the operating-wheel is released by a movement of the slide in either direction.

3. The combination, with a pivoted gate, a pivoted lever having aslot, 8, and a link connecting said gate and lever, of an operatingwheel having a pin engaging said slot, a stop adapted to determine the movement of said operatingwheel, a slide having an enlargement engaging said step, pivoted dogs on opposite sides ofsaid slide adapted to be engaged by a train, and suitable connections between said dogs and said slide, substantially as described.

4. The combination, with a pivoted railwaygate, suitable operating mechanism therefor, a stop to determine the movement of said operating mechanism, and a reciprocating slide to engage said step, of pairs of dogs pivoted on opposite sides of the tracks and provided with lugs 14, connections between each pair of dogs, and connections between one dog of each pair and said slide, whereby one dog in each pair is placed in operative position at all times, so that a train passing in either direction will close the gate in approaching and open it again in moving away.

In testimony whereofI affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WVILLIAM S. IVHITING.

Wit-nesses: EDWARD SHE-MAN WHITING,

H. LAWRENCE.

ICO 

